Cleaning Tips for Your BBQ Grill

What’s the secret to successful grilling?

It all starts with a clean grill! But no one wants to spend all their time cleaning the grill – your grill should be used and used often with little maintenance and we agree! So here are some low maintenance tips for cleaning your BBQ to keep you grilling for a long time.

Cleaning the Burner

Remove all burners and inspect for cracks and holes. Clean tubes using a pipe cleaner or brush to eliminate blockages caused by spiders or insects.

Cleaning the Sear Plates or Flav-R-Waves

Using a stainless steel brush scrape off any residue that has accumulated on the on them. If your sear plates are not stainless steel be sure to use a light weight brush or scrubby as to not remove the porcelain finish on them. If the finish is falling apart and there are visible holes its time to replace them.

Cleaning the Barbecue Housing (including bottom and top of it)

Remove and scrape the inside of the housing using a brush, removing all bits, grease and carbon that has been built up over the year. Be sure to then remove all the bits that have fallen to the bottom of the housing with either a shop vac or sponging it clean. Next invest in a good degreaser to clean the interior of the grill. These can be found at your local Barbecue store - like Patio Palace :).

Be sure it has a degreaser element in it to remove the grease build up. Rinse thoroughly after this is done. Most barbecue manufacturers do not recommend anything like oven cleaner since it can be corrosive. Clean the outside of the housing with a degreasing solution. If your grill is stainless steel use a good stainless steel cleaner that removes all grease and bring back its shiny exterior.

Pull Out Grease Tray or Drawer

Grease holding devices vary from barbecue to barbecue and are usually located directly below the hole in which grease will drain and may be accessible either from the rear of the barbecue, through the front doors or by pulling out tray below the grilling surface. The foil pans that hold the grease should be checked and cleaned or replaced regularly to prevent grease from building up which can cause fires and damage when it overflows either to the bottom of the grill or your patio.

A Sparkling Exterior

Barbecues today come with many exterior finishes ranging from cast aluminum, stainless steel, or porcelain. On cast housing white oxidation spots can appear, clean the outside with a mild soap and water solution, then rinse. Using a cloth dipped in cooking oil can restore some of the luster to cast housings. For stainless steel outside finishes us a good stainless steel cleaner that will clean and shine up the stainless. Follow the instructions on the bottle for the best way to use them.